Current consensus on making instrument cables

Bowks

I was digging through my pedal box over the weekend to put together my latest pedalboard and am now short of excellent Kabl patch leads.

Further digging turned up a dozen of the GLS Audio pancake plugs, a dozen Switchcraft 380 plugs and some Van Damme cable, all the ingredients I'll need to make my own.

Now, it has been a while since I've done this. So, do folks tend to use heat shrink tubing as strain relief on cables? Also, what wattage of iron do people prefer to use and how do I stop the inner plastic shield melting when I solder? Is the iron underpowered or too powerful?

Just keen to find out before the task commences! 

EDIT: Apologies if there's a thread tucked away that answers all these questions, I couldn't find it in the stickies

bob21

Heat shrink - never felt the need. Plugs should have adequate strain relief - and if they're patch leads, they shouldn't need too much.

Iron - pretty much anything will do jack leads and plugs. The Antex 25watt or so ones are nice for cheapies. (I use a v expensive Weller!)

If you're melting stuff, it's because you're applying heat for too long.. It's unlikely to be an issue of iron power (unless it's truly massively underpowered), more likely technique. Get things tinned up properly as part of the prep, including making sure the iron tip is wetted - then it should be less than a second or two to make the connection.. If you're holding the iron on for any length of time, that's when you start melting stuff..